


A Winter Quest For Love

by devorah



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M, Friendship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 02:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14886284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devorah/pseuds/devorah
Summary: His childhood best friend is ailing during a difficult pregnancy. Yuuri has no choice but to accompany her husband and a travelling Knight to find the only known remedy. Even if it means facing off against the famous and feared Madame Lilia...Fulfilling her desires, all for the sake of love!





	A Winter Quest For Love

**Author's Note:**

> A very late posting of LLYBB Bing Fic for Bing 3#. Will be submitted to Collection once complete.
> 
> Accompanying comic can be found:   
>  https://circlewalkerhk.tumblr.com/post/174708484407/circlewalkerhk-soft-hearted-lilia-my-art-for
> 
> By the lovely Circlewalker.

Winter had taken hold of the fair town of Hasetsu. Snowflakes danced with the wind before they hit the dirt roads. Grand thatched roofs sloped gently above the supporting posts and lintels. Heavy shutters sealed the homes of Hasetsu from the bitter biting cold.

 Almost no one dared to venture outside. All except two young men, who fussed with cloth bags and donned their heavy winter coats in silent resolve. Yuuri and Takeshi stood in their rice straw boots in wait of the third member of their party. The sun was still low in the sky and the faint grey mass of clouds obliterated what little light it might give.

 With the snow whipped into their faces by the wind; it was hard to see in any direction for more than a few meager feet. That boded ill for their quest, Yuuri thought with growing worry. Yuuko had a great need for the molasses remedy. Bolstered by the thought of the perilous state of his childhood friend, Yuuri pushed aside his concerns about the weather conditions. They would succeed if only that failure meant certain death.

 Yuuri squinted in search for their third companion. Everything in the distance blurred because of the wind-whipped snow and he saw nothing. To his right, Takeshi looked ready to dart off into the wilderness alone.

  _Where was Otabek?_ Yuuri thought with growing dismay. They needed the herbalist knight to ensure that they brought back the correct remedy. The First Witch was not known to be indulgent of the knowledgeable. Rumour had it that Madame Lilia had cast aside her own husband for some mild slight.

 “Argh! Yuuri, I can't wait any longer. I must go ahead!” Takeshi called out, voice distant as the wind tried to carry it beyond Yuuri's ability to hear it.

 Even with the wind-dulled volume of the voice, Yuuri could hear the pain and fear present. A better friend would have the ability to comfort Takeshi, easing his worry with a few well-placed words, but Yuuri was equally as worried. Yuuko had been in his life long before Takeshi knew she existed. As soon as he thought such an uncharitable thing, guilt poured through him in equal measure with shame.

 “Just wait a little longer!” Yuuri shouted fearfully, for travelling in such conditions alone was ill-advised. “Otabek will not let us down.”

 His relief was palpable when a new person came into view. They fought against the whipping winds that tried to banish them back from where they had come. It was not until the figure was mere yards away from Yuuri that he could tell it was their awaited companion. Otabek had arrived just in time.

 Takeshi did not even have the patience left to greet Otabek; the heavy-set silversmith began his descent down the dirt path. Yuuri and Otabek did their best to follow in his wake. They steeled themselves against the bitter cold with hunched shoulders and ducked heads. Determined that the weather conditions would be no obstacle to accomplishing their objective.

There was a silence from voices, but only from the men.  The wind carried the voices of the nature all around them, as if they were surrounded by the bounty of the countryside, even if they could see nothing. With the winter peaking so soon, no bandits would be so foolish to set upon travellers and Yuuri’s sword would go unneeded. 

 Because he was a dime-a-dozen swordsman, he was more than glad that Sir Otabek had offered to join them. Two swordsmen of solid training would be capable of warding off any evil they might come across.

 Onward, the trio pushed in silence, grim determination their closest companion. Conscious of the weather signs that pointed towards worse to come, Yuuri was zealous in keeping as much heat trapped within his clothes.  They had far to go and find the witch known as Madame Lilia!

 All Yuuri could do was exchange brief glances with Sir Otabek. Takeshi pushed ahead of them and spared no attention for those behind him. The brutal and unforgiving pace the large, thick-set man set was not one that could be maintained for too long. It was worrying, there would be no shelter for any man. 

 Yet, even so, they ventured onward with grim resolve. As the weather conditions worsened, wind pushing them back as they fought forward, the visibility around Yuuri grew gradually worse. His fellow questing companions were only faint shapes to his eyes, the falling snow a dancing mist around them. Yuuri gripped the hilt of his blade as if it would tether him to the ground when a gust of wind nearly took him off his feet. 

 It hit at him square in the chest, robbed him of the air in his lungs. His ribs felt bruised in the aftermath of it all.

 Yuuri squinted and attempted to ground himself to the quest at hand. Firstly, his brown eyes sought out his companions, to see if they had been similarly afflicted, but he could only put eyes on one. 

“Takeshi!” Yuuri shouted. The act of shouting allowed the air to cut at his throat and he would have to endure it again for Sir Otabek. “Sir Otabek!”

 He moved towards the one man he could see. Baffled at how easily they had been pushed apart as they marched over the thick snow laden grounds. However, it was Takeshi who reached him first, clapping a giant gloved hand on Yuuri’s shoulder. Takeshi squeezed with all the strength of one who worked a forge. 

 _Where was Sir Otabek?_ Yuuri thought, the gladness he felt upon reuniting with Takeshi fading quickly.

 Takeshi’s voice was a low rumble that stood out over the whistling winds. “He’s vanished. But we must push forwards.”

 At the prospect of leaving Sir Otabek behind, a sense of failure descended on Yuuri. But there was wisdom in the words of his friend, someone as dutiful as Sir Otabek would plunge onward regardless, and more than one helpless life was at stake if they faltered. He had to have faith that all would be well.

 They had to get across the valley no matter what.

 

* * *

 

Across the valley they walked. They made little progress on foot amongst snow drifts that stood as tall as they did. Both Yuuri and Takeshi were crowned by snowflakes as the hissing wind pushed back the hoods of their cloaks. Lost without the light of the moon and stars to carry them through their travels at twilight. Yuuri found each breath harder to take; his lungs were slowly freezing inside his chest. His nose was numbed by the cold and his eyelashes stiff with tiny crystals of ice. He doubted Takeshi fared any better, and could only pray that Sir Otabek had not come to an untimely end. Still, he feared that the young man would be in dire straits if he yet lived.

 Each step forwards demanded much of his body, every muscle of his body overworked. Nothing had ever prepared him to withstand such conditions with only a meagre protection in the form of cloaks. Yuuri now understood why from childhood they were taught to fear the might of winter storms.  There could be no force more powerful or angry than the rage of winter spirits. 

 Yuuko was in dire need of a remedy that lay afore them.  And the wind kept on howling, bending even the trees to its terrible will. Branches attacked from above as they were snapped from their mother tree to vent the rage of their master.  Brutal, unsympathetic force put against them.  Even the powdered snowfall slammed into them with all the force of a battering ram when carried by the winds. Everything ached.

 Shedding tears of frustration was another impossibility, as the below freezing temperature seemed to have them trapped frozen in his eyes. When he looked to seek out Takeshi, it was with a quickly growing horror that he realised he was alone. There was no sign of his companion within his limited sight. 

 _No, no..._ Yuuri thought with growing desperation.  Great winds that were rumbling, whistling and were reshaping snowdrifts as soon as they started to settle, screamed through his ears from all directions. Powdered snow settled on his shoulders, his head and even his back. A layer that clung to his clothes and left Yuuri fearing it would bury him as he walked. 

 He opened his mouth to call out for Takeshi, when a blast of snow whipped at his face. Snow filled his mouth; it froze his tongue, numbed the flesh of his cheeks inside and out. He choked on his own tongue and stumbled forwards with a true fear that the end for him was here.

 The weight of his sword at his hip helped push him down face first into the snow. Paralysed by the cold and his own panic he struggled to draw breath. His frozen lungs came alive again in a desperate effort to fill themselves. 

  _He could not fail Yuuko,_ he thought as the darkness descended over him. _He would not let himself die._

 


End file.
